Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Theobroma cacao - Cacao

Edible parts - Seeds, Seeds for chocolate, Herb, Flavouring, Spice, Pulp

A small evergreen tree. It grows to 15 m tall. Often it is pruned to be only 6 m tall. The trunk is straight for about 90-159 cm above the ground then a fan arrangement of branches develops. The leaves are large and simple. They are in a spiral arrangement around the branch. They are 17-30 cm long and hang down. They are red brown when young. The leaves are wider towards the pointed tip. The leaves are thin but leathery with prominent veins. The flowers are on short shoots like cushions on the trunk and woody branches. The flowers are small, yellow-white and about 1 cm across. A ribbed pod develops. The pods are large about 15-20 cm long by 10 cm across. They are green when young but become yellow or red. The pods have rows of seeds. There are 20-50 oval seeds. These are white at first then become red-brown as they ripen. There is a sweet pulp surrounding the seeds.